Little victories: About a week ago,
Household International Inc. agreed to pay up to $484 million to settle charges that it deceived low-income borrowers into paying high interest rates. We’ve discussed the rapid rise of predatory lending before on OS—so, our question is: Is this a sign of a genuine turnaround in the industry, or is it merely a minor obstacle to be overcome by one unscrupulous lender? (I.e., the “cost of doing business?”) When you think about it, $484 million isn’t really all that much to pay for a lender with revenues of almost $10 billion in 2001…